‘Til All Are One

I’ve always had a passion for computing and information technology. I remember as a kid messing around with a Radio Shack computer (with 4KB RAM!!!) which my dad had bought. After this (around 1985), we purchased an IBM PC XT (with full specs as shown here, but minus the HDD). That machine proved to be an enduring source of education and entertainment. It felt so cool back then to be able to use MS-DOS 2.1 and GW-BASIC!

Over the following years I played around with new versions of DOS (by MS, IBM and even Caldera), Windows and even OS/2 (which was awesome but since it couldn’t detect my CD-ROM I was forced to use Win95). I was a natural, and I quickly became the ‘computer guy’ in my circle of friends and family. I developed a passion for technology, and I would read and experiment as much as I could on the subject.

I only considered converting that into a career in high school, but once that had happened my motivation became strong. I commenced a computer science degree at The University of Sydney, but after a year I decided that I was ill-suited to coding. By the end of the second year (during which I had deliberately avoided CS subjects), I felt that my path lay in the humanities, with information systems and government (which I was doing as a minor) looking awfully tempting. For my third year I had transferred to The University of New South Wales, doing a plain-old Science degree. This, I felt, suited my broad mind (I’m the kind of person who likes to know a little about everything) very well. After some false starts and changes, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and minoring in Government, Politics and International Relations.

What a change that was from computer science! It was truly fascinating stuff (I loved it), but unfortunately it meant that I had trouble finding decent employment. In Australia, the humanities have the highest unemployment rate of all the graduate disciplines. I didn’t want to be stuck in a dead-end office role, where most of my skills would go to waste.

For a while I had been toying with the idea of finding employment in the IT industry. Recently I concluded that it would be impossible to do this. I may have the skills (I spend most of my free time at one of my computers), but I have no formal recognition (certifications, etc.) or experience. After a couple of weeks of heavy pondering and several meetings, I decided to bite the bullet and enrol in a training college to get the qualifications I need.

Today I completed my enrolment at the Computer Power Institute of Technology, and within ten months (full time: 11am to 4pm Monday to Friday) I should have a Diploma of Information technology (Network Engineering). That’s right, I’m training to be a network engineer! That’s something I’ve dreamt about for years!

My orientation is in Monday, and I officially begin training on Tuesday. I’m so excited! I’ll going to try to be diligent in reporting my progress in this journal. If you’re reading this (that means YOU!), stay tuned.